Death-Row Convict Can Pursue Appeal Despite Lawyers’ Error

An Alabama death-row convict who missed a filing deadline because his attorneys from a top New York firm quit without telling him can still pursue his appeal, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday by a 7-2 vote.

Federal law places high hurdles before defendants in such cases, but Cory Maples, convicted in 1997 of two murders, cleared them owing to what one justice called a “veritable perfect storm of misfortune.”

Mr. Maples, 37 years old, had a state appeal pending in 2002 on the grounds of inadequate representation when his two pro-bono attorneys, associates at Sullivan & Cromwell, left the New York firm for other jobs without notifying either their client or the state court.

The state court in 2003 rejected the appeal and notified Sullivan & Cromwell, but the law firm returned the letters unopened. An Alabama lawyer working on the case also received a letter but did nothing, assuming the New York lawyers would handle it, the Supreme Court opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recounted. . .

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